Eddie Tavares: From Kuzmic’s replacement to… Euroleague cheat!

We are counting the hours now, for the grand final of the Euroleague between Olympic and the Real Madrid (20/5, 20:00).

The two teams will clash on the floor of the Zalgirio Arena to win the event, but only one will manage to reach the end of the road.

If she is the Realwill owe it largely to Eddie Tavares. The “giant” of Madrid went through a magical season, which especially from the playoffs onwards turned into a legendary one, as he has been carrying for weeks by himself a very lacking front line.

And if many consider that a man of 2.21 m. he is “built” to play basketball, this is not the case for the EuroLeague’s top defender. The center from Cape Verde was just… not a born basketball player, having first come into contact with the sport just before he came of age!

The first contact with basketball and Gran Canaria

THE Tavares he was born in Cape Verde, a cluster of islands west of Senegal, where of course basketball was not… particularly popular. His father was very tall (2.03m), which as we know was inherited by his son. Tavares had a quiet childhood, and as a teenager began helping out in his mother’s shop. “It was a simple life. I helped my mother and went to school. Of course, it was not easy to find clothes for someone of my height, we had to buy them from abroad”he stated years later.

This very unimaginable height was also noticed by one German tourist, who happened to meet Tavares while on business in Cape Verde. As soon as she saw him, she knew the young man was something special. She talked to him, and told him that she had an acquaintance who worked for her academies Gran Canariaand could help him if he was interested in playing basketball.

The youngster Eddywho didn’t have many outlets in his country anyway, decided to try it, without of course knowing anything about the sport. “The only one I knew was Jordan”, he admitted after a while. THE Raul Rodriguezdirector of her youth group Gran Canariawas convinced by the photo that his German friend Tavares gave him, and decided to visit him in his homeland.

There was, of course, one major problem, that Eddie was 17 years old and had never caught a basketball in his life. He also couldn’t find sneakers in his size and had to play in slippers, Rodriguez recalled. The Spaniard was however impressed by the physical qualities of the immature tall but also by his intelligence, and suggested that he compete in its academies Gran Canaria and learn basketball from scratch. After all, we are talking about a 17-year-old who was 2.16 tall. THE Rodriguez he understood what was in front of him.

Indeed, in 2009 Tavares left his home and moved alone to the Canary Islands. There, he began his difficult task of learning the basics of the sport. However, everyone was impressed with the way he was able to absorb what he was learning. “He had never played basketball, and he knew nothing about it, but he was able to do the drills we taught him correctly”Rodriguez said, stressing that he quickly began to see the young man’s enormous prospects.

Gradually, he began to climb one level after another, showing great progress. At the beginning of 2013, he made his debut in the Gran Canaria shirt in ACB, having now reached the height of 2.21m. That same summer… he got carried away and signed up for the draft of the NBA, but quickly withdrew his name and decided to remain in the Gran Canaria. The next year he was clearly improved and was now getting 20 minutes of playing time, so he did decide to try his luck in the NBA.

Failure in the NBA and the comeback

The Atlanta Hawks they chose him Tavares at number 43 in the 2014 draft. Of course, he was the first player from Cape Verde ever to be selected by an NBA team. He wisely chose to stay another year in Spain, where he has now developed into Gran Canaria’s top player and was named in their top five Eurocup.

In the 2015-16 season, it was finally time for him to play in the NBA. The Hawks they gave him a multi-year contract and he eagerly awaited his career in the “wizard world” to begin. However, he spent most of his freshman year playing in the D-League, the NBA’s affiliate league. There, she performed magically, but never gained the trust of her team Atlantawhich released him at the start of the 2016-17 season.

THE Tavares he continued to look for a contract in his team NBA, but no one was interested in him. In an era when tall men were starting to play short, shoot and pass, no one wanted a 2.21 player who didn’t have much technical training.

Although the Tavares found some contracts with the Cavaliers and the Raptors, he barely played in the NBA and quickly realized that the league no longer had a place for him and the dream was over. Returning to Europe, where he had shown his talent, was a one-way street.

Real and recognition

In the old continent he had no difficulty in finding the next stage of his career. After all, European basketball, which gave much more basis to the defense and less to the spectacle, there was always a place for a player with such qualifications, who could be a defensive superweapon.

His Real Madrid Pablo Lasso, who had already distinguished himself years before Tavares, made him an offer and acquired him in November 2017, with a contract until 2020. They would have known something, to give a three-year contract to a player from the NBA unclaimed. It is awesome, in fact, that the only reason the tall man from Cape Verde was acquired at the time was to replace Ognien Kuzmicwho suffered a cruciate ligament tear in the first matches of the Euroleague!

Of course, the Madrid team already had another great five, O Gustavo Aion. However, Tavares had no trouble finding a role in the team as his replacement Mexican, enjoying a lot of playing time since his first year in the “queen”. Very quickly, he also won his first title, after his magical Real Luka Doncic made it all the way to the EuroLeague in 2018.

Year after year, Mr Tavares he developed into Madrid’s starting five, and is now their top player, if not Europe’s. In Euroleagueeveryone admits that he is the best defender they have seen in many years, which is proven by the fact that he has been named best defender of the season three times.

Overall, one word that would describe Tavares is… cheat. He now looks like the player someone would make in a video game if they wanted to play without… struggling. Although his qualifications gave him a big head start, it took a lot of work to get to this level and become so great, essentially starting to learn the sport at the age of 17. And if he manages to win this year’s Euroleague with Real, this will be it completely his!